Nothing Left But Scars
by Kris Harold
Summary: Nunally and Kallen are dead, C2 is gone, the Black Knights are defeated and Zero is captured. When Suzaku is left to guard his cell for the night, what will happen between the two old friends?


**[Author's Note]** I hope everyone enjoys this! Sorry for the delay in chapters for When the Day Met the Night. I've been reading, working at my aunt's restaurant, fixing my house, and working on this in my free time with little time for WDMN, but I promise to get cracking on it as much as possible very soon. In the meantime, enjoy the treat! This is actually an altered version of another fan-fiction I wrote that I titled "Locked Inside" on deviantArt, so never fear if you stumble upon it, ownership things are all A-OK.** [/Note]**

**Nothing Left But Scars  
**

Zero stared horrified at the bloody and mangled figure that was formerly his younger sister Nunally. He was too late. Again. He fell to his knees, gasping for air in short inhales and exhales. He felt sick. His arms lowered to her pathetically as if they could actually do something. Even Geass couldn't save her now.

"Nunally," he gasped with his chest tightening dangerously against his airways as panic and grief overcame him, "Nunally!"

Suzaku sprinted upon the scene and abruptly halted in his path when he saw the gut-wrenching scene. He grimaced at the two. "Viceroy Nunally…" he muttered.

Zero didn't even recognize his friend's arrival, clutching to the hand of his sister with both of his and shuddering in suppressed sobs. He had been so close…

The other knights of the round rushed forward, passed their colleague and pointed their weapons at the masked rebel. "Zero," Gino barked from behind his firearm, "Stand up and keep your hands where we can see them!"

He made no movement from his place.

Suzaku drew his eyebrows together in pity and stepped ahead of the other knights. "Zero, it's over," he said as he laid a hand on the boy's shoulder, "She's gone."

The others swooped in and took hold of the rebel figure and pinned him down to restrain him accordingly. Zero made no effort to fight back. Why should he? He had lost Nunally, Kallen had just been killed in the battle's crossfire, the black knights had been defeated, Suzaku continued to hate him for Euphie's death, and C2 had abandoned him to find someone stronger to make a deal with. There was nothing left for him.

Anya removed his mask to reveal the face of the former Eleventh Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire: Lelouch vi Britannia and son of Charles vi Britannia and the late Imperial Consort Marianne. Scattered gasps echoed through the Knights of the Round at the sight of the prince who had been presumed dead due to his extended absence. They quickly snapped back to business and dragged him off to the palace, leaving Suzaku and the approaching medical team to take care of the viceroy's lifeless form.

Lelouch slowly pulled himself back to the present situation once he was pulled away from his sister's corpse. He tugged against the restraints placed upon him as he was dragged and forced to kneel in front of his malicious father to face judgment.

"Let go of me," he growled threateningly.

As his head lifted to glare at them—as well as possibly use Geass—his head was forced down by the neck before Monica forcefully wrapped gauze around his head to cover his left, Geass-wielding eye. His right eye was still visible and, therefore, able to see. "You're not using that witchcraft on us!" she declared triumphantly.

Lelouch proceeded to glare back at his captors with half-hearted vengeance. He hated them for capturing him, but he had no reason to not be captured anymore. No one cared whether he lived or died. He was alone in the world once again, without Nunally or Suzaku. No one cared about him, and he had no one to care about. His life was empty. He was empty.

He didn't listen to his father's speech as the man verbally prodded him to inspire retaliation. He knew what the man must have been saying. It was most likely something about how weak, pathetic, and cowardly he was. To be truthful, Lelouch didn't really care. He began to burn with pure hatred for his father and his father's subordinates—even more so than usual. He saw Charles indicate to his captors to take him away. "See that some of that spirit is taken down to a more… suitable level for his situation," the emperor ordered, "And find out what he knows that could be of use to us."

Gino jerked Lelouch to his feet and lead him off. Lelouch knew what his father meant by his words: torture. Just lovely. The Knights of the Round were in charge of the torture, meaning Suzaku was forced to make a presence. For the majority of the tortures, he managed to keep himself emotionally detached. Thanks to the hardships of battle, he found it surprisingly easy to block out his former friend's bloodcurdling screams. He glanced around and noticed some of the knights appeared to even be enjoying the assigned tasks, especially Luciano. Anya was the only one who appeared indifferent, but that came as no surprise to anyone.

When Suzaku's eyes finally returned to Lelouch's broken and bloody figure, he heard the strain of the boy's bones as a device attempted to break the fallen prince's left arm. Lelouch choked back the rising scream, and Suzaku decided he'd had enough. He glided forward and gripped Luciano by the wrists. "That's enough: he's done," Suzaku declared, "No more."

The man growled in disappointment like a dog who didn't want his bone taken away, but he acquiesced nonetheless and backed away. Gino took over the situation from there. "Get him cleaned up and see him to his cell," he commanded. He turned to Suzaku. "I assume you're going to guard him for the night?"

Suzaku, spacing out from deep thought, pulled himself back to the conversation. "Hm?"

"Are you going to guard Ze-- Err, Lelouch tonight?"

His eyes traveled to Lelouch uncertainly before he sighed, "Sure."

Gino pat Suzaku firmly on the shoulder and nodded. "Report to cell number seven in ten minutes, then."

Suzaku nodded distractedly, making a point not to watch the other knights drag Lelouch out of the torture chamber by the shoulders and upper arms. He didn't want to meet the boy's eyes just yet. The knight left the room and changed out of his formal clothing into something cleaner and more comfortable to spend the night in. The last thing he felt like doing was spending the entire night watching Lelouch, but a request from Gino wasn't a question: it was an order, and he had to follow orders. He ran his fingers through his hair like a comb to satisfy the little itchy feelings scattered on his scalp from need of a shower. He concluded to take one in the morning when he had more time. It wasn't like he was going to meet any major diplomats tonight and needed to look his best.

He wore a pair of jeans with a white muscle shirt underneath an unbuttoned, tan short-sleeve button-up. Suzaku reported promptly to the designated solitary cell, strategically chosen so Lelouch couldn't use Geass on any other prisoners or inspire riot, just as the prisoner arrived. The knights threw the boy onto the cell's cot, the only blankets neatly folded at the foot of the bed. The clothes he had been given were all white, standard for prisoners there, to make them easier to clean. He had new gauze around his head to cover his Geass-wielding eye. His other eye was half-lidded, staring into space to match his expressionless face. His body felt like gelatin, muscles unmotivated to move even a fraction.

Bismarck and Gino exited the cell and closed the door behind them. Gino waived the keys to Suzaku before asking, "Are you going to be all right?"

He nodded. "I'm fine." He must have looked like a mess from the emotional weight of losing Nunally, though he had immediately concluded after the fact that he couldn't be feeling half as horrible as Lelouch. "Have a good night."

"You, too," he replied as he and Bismarck walked off down the hall and disappeared through the door.

Suzaku sat on the floor across the hall from the bars to watch into the dark cell. He waited an hour in silence before he let out a long breath. He jumped a fraction in surprise when he heard Lelouch speak, assuming he had been asleep.

"Suzaku…" he muttered.

He stiffened instinctively. "What is it?"

Lelouch's voice was heavy with empty hope. "Was… Was she…?"

Suzaku looked down at the floor and shook his head. "No. She's gone."

"I see," he muttered.

He listened to the faint sounds of Lelouch struggling to turn onto his back from within the cell. He hissed in pain when a sore spot was nudged and ceased his movement with an exhale. "You hate me, don't you, Suzaku?" he asked in such a tone that one would believe it was smug and suave. Suzaku felt a flare of anger at the sound, but immediately settled when he felt the sorrow beneath the words.

"You used Geass on Euphie and then you killed her," he spat.

He didn't reply.

"Why did you do it?"

"You've asked me this before."

"Answer me," he growled.

"You wouldn't believe the truth even if I told you." Lelouch remembered he told Suzaku multiple times what he'd done and said it so Suzaku would believe it was out of malice. He didn't care if the angered knight knew the truth anymore. He had nothing to hide for anyone, not even himself.

"Try me," he replied.

Lelouch sighed, stared up at the ceiling, and closed his visible eye. "It was an accident."

"Don't lie to me," Suzaku retaliated.

He took another deep breath and mentally rolled his eyes. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"How the hell can something like that be an accident?" he asked, raising his voice angrily.

"Geass is a very complicated ability. C2 didn't tell me the full effects of its power, and it got out of control."

Though he didn't quite believe it, his interest was pulled. "How?"

"After Geass has been used for a long period of time, it eventually gets to a point where it can't be turned off. Mine decided to be that way during a conversation I had with Euphie and I can't control it after that. If I wouldn't have killed her, she wouldn't have stopped until every last Japanese was stone-cold dead," Lelouch explained tiredly.

Suzaku remained quiet, mind drifting back to the princess's face as she died before his very eyes because of the injuries Zero had inflicted. He leapt to his feet and to the bars of the cell. "But she could--"

"No, Suzaku," he contradicted, cutting the boy short. "As you've seen, Geass can't be reversed once it's been cast unless Jeremiah's Geass Canceller is used. Nothing would have been able to stop her."

"Couldn't you have cancelled the order?" he demanded.

Lelouch replied calmly, "Once I've used my Geass on someone, I can't use it on them again, not even to cancel a previous order. It's permanent."

"And what about Shirley?"

He shook his head slowly, with difficulty. "That was Rolo. I tried to use my Geass to save her, but her injuries were too severe and I was too late."

Suzaku felt his anger bubble down like a boiling pot of water removed from its heat source. He found himself believing what the other told him. He drew a deep breath and folded his arms loosely. After a very long silence, he estimated approximately ten minutes, Suzaku asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a truck."

"Well, that's a relief, because you look like you went skydiving without a parachute or impaled by an elephant or something. You're just missing the gaping hole in your gut."

Lelouch chuckled to himself weakly at the attempt at humor. "Very funny."

The corners of his lips bent slightly for a moment to form a small smile. "I thought you'd think so."

He began to move again in attempts to sit up, and he failed. In the attempts, he only managed to accidentally roll himself off the bed and crash to the floor. Lelouch grunted in pain during impact and groaned, "Dammit," while he lay there.

After a moment of thought, Suzaku used the key to open the cell and closed it behind him and entered. He knelt to the floor and gently assisted Lelouch to his feet before setting him up on the cot. As he turned around to exit, he heard Lelouch say, "Suzaku…"

He turned his head a fraction to the side to listen.

"I really am sorry… Other than Nunally, Euphie was the only sibling I got along with. She was truly a kind person," he breathed. He wasn't an active person as it was, and the strenuous activities were wearing on him. "For what it's worth, I would have rather died than make her kill those people."

"Even if it meant leaving Nunally?" Suzaku asked disbelievingly.

The answer was almost immediate. "Yes."

He scoffed and began to turn his head away to continue leaving the cell. "Yeah, right."

"The world my half sister wanted to make would have been paradise for Nunally. She wouldn't have needed me anymore."

Suzaku turned fully around to face Lelouch. "You did all of this for Nunally?"

He attempted to lean back against the wall, but was interrupted by the wrist-restraints behind his back, so he just lounged as comfortably as he could manage. "Why else?"

He crossed the cell and reflexively adjusted Lelouch's pillows so he had something to lean against while sitting up to make him more comfortable. "I should've figured…" he mumbled.

Lelouch raised a questioning brow tiredly. "What do you mean?"

Despite his better judgment, Suzaku sat on the bed beside the prisoner. "You've always put Nunally first, above absolutely everything else."

He laughed hollowly, but it was so weak it sounded more like a broken exhale. "Yeah, I guess."

Suzaku watched as Lelouch's expression turned from tired and ragged to very mournful and beaten-down. His head slowly tilted downward as liquid developed on the dark lashes of his visible eye against the will of its master. He drew a deep breath and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling, mentally ordering the tears to recede as he took a deep, broken breath through his nose. He didn't know whether it was because the tears disobeyed him by falling down his cheek or if it was a verbalized response to Lelouch's thoughts, but as Lelouch let out his breath he breathed, "God…" with a distasteful, hating bite underneath it.

"Lelouch…" Suzaku attempted to console, but he knew it would be of no use.

The former prince clenched his eyes shut and banged his head roughly backwards against the wall behind him in sorrowful frustration. "God dammit!" he cursed bitterly.

Though he knew the act could land him in a world of trouble, Suzaku felt he would be able to handle anything Lelouch could throw at him—thanks to their differences in strength—and swiftly unlocked the restraints on Lelouch's hands, tucking the keys into a safe location. Arms awkward and uncertain at first, Suzaku stretched them around Lelouch's shoulders and pulled him close. His arms grew steadier even as Lelouch attempted to pry the arms from him blindly in a hostile manner and move away, refusing to accept pity. Eventually, Lelouch simply surrendered and let his hands hang off Suzaku's arms where they had been clawing. He was much too tired and sore to provide a decent battle against the warm, welcoming arms.

Suzaku turned Lelouch's body so they were face to face, and he rested his chin on the other's right shoulder. Lelouch buried his face into the other's right shoulder despite his fierce mental commands to not do so. He gripped Suzaku's sleeves and clenched tightly, pulling down slightly partially in attempts to be released and partially in the sheer weight of mourning. In return, he squeezed the former prince closer. Lelouch accidentally let out a broken sob, head sliding so it was his forehead resting on the other's shoulder rather than his eyes. Suzaku was at a loss for words and felt tears of his own welling in his eyes.

He decided to try to control the situation, and he cleared his throat. "The coroner determined she didn't feel anything… She didn't know what hit her…" he attempted to soothe.

It obviously didn't work. Suzaku let a few more sobs quake through his friend before he took his shoulders and shook him gently. "Lelouch! Get a hold of yourself," he ordered with as much compassion as one could while ordering someone not to mourn. He held his friend away from his body in an attempt to catch his attention. "Why are you giving up so easy? This isn't like you."

Lelouch pulled on the sleeves harder and tried to pull away, but he was far too sore and exhausted for it to make much impact. Suzaku appeared to be deep in thought and the former prince was always up for a good puzzle, including people.

"What is it?"

He didn't answer, thinking hard for several moments with his eyebrows drawn from the intense concentration. Suzaku turned, wrapping Lelouch's hands around his neck and settling his legs in his arms to carry him piggyback like he used to do for Nunally when they were children. "What are you doing?" Lelouch demanded.

"I'm getting you out of here."

"Suzaku, if we get caught, you'll be--"

"I know, and I don't care," he said abruptly. Suzaku walked out of the cell and closed it behind him. He weaved through the security precautions unnoticed thanks to his knowledge of its layout and how to avoid it. Once they were in the shadows of the building outdoors, Lelouch squeezed his hands where they rest on Suzaku's shoulders to get his attention.

He looked back at him when he felt the squeeze. "Put me down," he whispered.

Suzaku complied with the request and was surprised to find Lelouch able to stand, however feebly. He looked around the grounds and only found one person: Gino. "Okay, Lelouch. I'll distract Gino and you get out of here, got it?" He looked back at his friend.

Lelouch was shaking his head slowly, keeping his eyes down. "Take me back, Suzaku: I've had it. I don't have a reason to keep doing this…"

He turned fully to face him, gripping his shoulder with one hand and his chin with the other to guide his face up to look at him. "No; you're going to live. Do it for me, do it for Euphie, do it for Nun--"

"Don't say her name!" Lelouch whimpered harshly. He pleaded more softly, "Please…"

"If I have to live, then so do you!" he replied softly, though the reminder of the Geass command placed onto his friend made the prince wince. Suzaku shook the shoulders to reclaim his attention. "Dammit, Lelouch," he muttered in a half-hearted, pleading snarl, "_Please_ do this!"

"But why are you doing this?"

"That's a stupid question," he answered, "Because you're my best friend; you always have been!" He seemed to think for a moment. "Besides, after what happened to Euphie, I admit that I wanted you to pay for what you did… to suffer…" he admitted lowly, keeping his eyes from the prince's face. "And I wanted to be the one to do it, but I…" He clenched his eyes shut, angry with himself for many reasons and conflicting thoughts. "I can't do it. You've always been like a brother to me, and I just can't do it! Enough people are dead, and I don't want to lose you, too!"

His eyes fell again. Even after everything, Suzaku still cared, considered him his friend… _best_ friend… Lelouch closed his eyes tightly. Suzaku had always been the one he could turn to, even as Zero against one of the Knights of the Round and he was the only one the former prince could really talk to since Nunally was too innocent for many topics the boy faced. He roughly swallowed the lump in his throat that formed at the thought of her. "Same here," he replied quietly.

Returning to the task at hand, he turned around to face the exit of their shadowy hiding place. "Go to the gate once I've gotten him to turn around and you'll be home-free from there." He stared off in Gino's direction. "Good-bye… Lelouch vi Britannia." Suzaku rounded the corner to reach his target.

"Farewell… Suzaku Kururugi," he whispered to the dark shadows around him.


End file.
